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These words from Wendell Berry's 'Farming' rushed into my mind like a gentle wind at evening's neigh. 'All that I serve will die… like a tree in a field, passing without haste or regret… my life a patient willing descent into the grass.'

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<h5 style="text-align: center;">Through out the campaign, I will post prose that represents the hollers of Appalachia we know best in HD 85. </h5>Saturday, March 28The MurmurThere’s a murmur moving through these hills,and it is not the wind.The dogs know it first,throwing their voices against the ridge linelike the mountain answered back wrong.Even the road feels tighter underfoot,like it’s bracing.It showed up at the courthouse steps,folding chairs biting into marble dust,coffee thinned to the color of creek water in August.Men arguing about SNAPlike hunger is a stain that spreads on its own.Arguing about women’s health-they’ve never sat beside a pregnant twelve year oldtrying to memorize algebrabetween doctor’s appointments.Preaching about vaccineslike we didn’t once chase down the greatest medical miracle and call it polio cured.Women with Aitken’s Bibles tucked deep in their purses,pages like decorative dish towels with gold trim,verses about loaves and fishespressed between lipstick and receipts.I hope they read the red letters slow.You can feel it in the creek before it floods.Water pulls itself close.Sycamores flash their pale underarms.Cows settle heavy in the pasture.Even the crows hold their cawlike they know sound carries.They talk about three strikes for mercyas if grace keeps score.They talk about who deserves clean waterin a state where wells run poison.They shake hands in Charlestonwhile foster kids age outwith no familyand no porch light waiting.I know an elderly womanwho fills milk jugs from her neighbor’s hosebecause a hospital stayturned her water bill into a cliff.Her hands tremble in the coldbut she thanks him with cookies.My Jesus is the neighbor with the spigot,boots unlaced,waving her over.Not the utility companystacking fees like firewood.I know a man who met Narcan eight times.Eight sharp blue mornings.Eight returns from the edge of the creek bankwhere the mud sucks at your heels.Now he stands in church basementsunder humming fluorescent lights,telling the shaking onestheir names still matter.Breath is not a sin.Coming back is not weakness.It is resurrection with track marks.I know a woman who once counted SNAP dollarsat the Dollar Generalwith her chin lifted high.Now she counts heartbeats.Scrubs crisp as frost,nursing degree framed on a paneled wallthat used to hold eviction notices.Help was not her ending.It was her bridge.I know a child who eats on weekendsbecause neighbors in her hollerdo not let cupboards echo.There is always a pot of beans on low.Cornbread sweating in a cast iron skillet.A knock that sounds casualbut carries salvation in foil pans.There’s a line at the food pantrycurving soft as the Elk River bend.Nobody in it looks like a headline.They look like us.Boots dirty.Hair pinned up with pencils.Disabled.The working poor.Breath fogging in chemical valley airthat smells faintly of metal and prosperity.So before you tell mewho’s worthy of breador breathor one more chance,come sit at this table.Hear the door slap shut.Tell them no yourself.Eye to eyeAnd see if your voice shakes.-Jenny Keener----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Palm SundayFor The Dead of West Virginia, Still Waiting for a Better Day&nbsp;Our ancestors are sown into pocket graveyards&nbsp;&nbsp;throughout these mountains, private plots&nbsp;&nbsp;lucky to be mown monthly by some volunteer&nbsp;from the Presbyterian church or an inmate&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;from the county jail. Their headstones lean&nbsp;&nbsp;into the hillsides, and they wait patiently,&nbsp;bony wrists crossed, for the new body&nbsp;&nbsp;they were promised from the pulpit&nbsp;&nbsp;as they sat aching on bare wood pews&nbsp;&nbsp;after six-day work weeks felling and barking&nbsp;timber, or killing and cooking chickens, or wielding&nbsp;&nbsp;a pick and shovel in a four-foot seam&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;half-a-mile inside a mountain. This isn’t&nbsp;to say&nbsp;&nbsp;they didn’t&nbsp;know love and joy, that they didn’t&nbsp;&nbsp;revel in pleasure and play. They held their children&nbsp;in their laps, and sang loud and out of tune, and fought&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and laughed, of course, because that is the unkillable kernel&nbsp;&nbsp;at the heart of being human. But know this: they never knew&nbsp;&nbsp;any work that didn’t&nbsp;hurt, and they only ever worked&nbsp;&nbsp;because they had to, because there had to be a better life&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;beyond this one. But there they lie, still moldering, still&nbsp;&nbsp;waiting, and maybe beginning&nbsp;to believe they were sold&nbsp;&nbsp;a bill of goods, and this hole is the only home they’ll&nbsp;ever know,&nbsp;&nbsp;from here on out, forever&nbsp;and ever, Amen.&nbsp;-Doug Van Gundy, Elkins WV------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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HD 85 Democratic Primary Concession Statement May 12, 2026 The primary voters of House District 85 have made their choice, and I respect their decision. I congratulate Deborah K. Stiles on their election and wish them success in the days ahead — the work they carry into the fall and beyond is not the sole burden of any one candidate or officeholder. It is incumbent on all of us who call this majestic and magical corner of the world home, to do their part for the betterment of all.To everyone who supported this campaign: thank you. You talked with your neighbors, and reminded me every day why this district is worth fighting for. The issues we raised — protecting our environment, job training for the 21st century, healthcare for all — do not end on Election Day in November. They belong to this community, and they deserve unwavering attention regardless of who represents us in Charleston.Democracy depends not just on who wins, but also on what the defeated do the day after. I intend to stay engaged with the people and the place I love, and I hope every resident of our district — whatever their politics — will do the same. We are stronger when together we hold our representatives accountable for their words and actions on the campaign trail and in Charleston.I will always remember this campaign as one of grace received and hope restored with every extended hand and welcoming smile.

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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Pitch in today to support Dean Bonney for HD 85 WV.</h2><h2 style="text-align: center;"> Defending Local Autonomy. </h2><h2 style="text-align: center;">Protecting our Fragile Environment. </h2><h2 style="text-align: center;">Economic Justice for all Mountaineers in Grant and Tucker Counties!</h2>

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'To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.' - Abraham Lincoln

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&nbsp;It makes my blood boil when confronting the truth about Charleston today:&nbsp;&nbsp;That the GOP spent the last decade gleefully abandoning Mountaineer families in need of good shelter, medical, education, clean water, affordable utilities, and jobs.

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I'm Dean Bonney and my roots are grounded in Greater Appalachia.

<h2>Bonney Receives Primary Endorsement from Corridor H, Finish it!</h2>'"We believe Dean Bonney understands the importance of infrastructure and economic development in his region. We support candidates who recognize the value of projects like Corridor H, US 48, and its impact on local communities."

<h2>Bonney Receives 2026 Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate Distinction</h2>Moms Demand Action understands that Dean will advocate for gun violence prevention in Charleston and will govern with gun safety in mind. Dean is a 2nd amendment sportsman who believes that no one should legally own a machine gun, and that there is no place in our society for legal and open carry of semi-automatic rifles in the public square where first amendment rights are threatened by their presence.

<h2>Dean Bonney is Recognized for his Commitment to Protecting Reproductive Rights in WV</h2>Dean will fight back to curb dangerous abortion bans, the inhumane attacks on trans youth, and the spread of health care misinformation that is destabilizing our communities.&nbsp;

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<h2 style="text-align: center;">I am running as a servant leader proudly representing HD 85 constituents in Charleston.</h2><h3 style="text-align: center;"></h3><img src="https://run.imgix.net/e40d9f74-fd89-4d51-9d87-527bf2ff8607/9374c079-bb0b-4c0c-be66-34b9dbcf9b03/9374c079-bb0b-4c0c-be66-34b9dbcf9b03.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&amp;bri=0&amp;con=0&amp;sat=0&amp;high=0&amp;shad=0&amp;usm=0&amp;rect=363%2C808%2C1905%2C3224&amp;w=1500" alt="" caption="" align="left" alignwidth="40" tiltdirection="left" variant="framed"><h3 style="text-align: center;">I was selected for trust and leadership regarding election integrity in the Virginia Commonwealth by both Republican and Democratic administrations, and I will bring that same type of experience and engagement to Charleston on behalf of HD 85.</h3>

Help my campaign become smarter about the issues that are of most importance to you, your family, and your community.

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Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause.-Abraham LincolnWhen John and I were at base camp, he would come down to my hootch after dinner, sunglasses on, carrying a samsonite briefcase. We would play loud music like Bob Seger, the Grateful Dead, and the Charlie Daniels Band and pass a bottle of Wild Turkey to deaden the pain, rarely speaking. One night, I asked John what was in the briefcase. He said ‘my brothers.’ I saw a pile of obituaries when he opened the briefcase. John was a medic and conscientious objector who served two tours in Vietnam.I am a member of American Legion China Post 1, which supports many watering holes around the world, and I was fortunate enough to visit some of those in Europe and the Middle East during my years working for the State Department.When I returned home, I did volunteer work at Veterans homes and hospitals. In 2008, I became a member of the MITRE Corporation team that was selected to work with the VA. For the next 17 years I worked as an individual contributor and project manager on VBA and OIT projects to help Veterans in civilian life. Those projects are listed to the right.For 25 years I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Dr. Paul Lawrence, who served as the Undersecretary of VBA from 2016 to 2020, and who currently serves as the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. There is no greater servant leader in government.

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We must end the giveaway to out-of-state private schools.&nbsp;&nbsp;I will fight to end the Hope Scholarship, a fiscal Armageddon that will soon exceed $1,000,000,000 that taxpayers will be on the hook for, and repurpose those funds to our struggling school districts.I will support local school districts by advocating to fully fund the cost of student IEPs, costs that are far greater than the standard student funding allocation formula.Data from the West Virginia Department of Education showed that for home-schooled students in grades requiring assessments (3, 5, 8, and 11), only about 37 to 58 percent of families submitted the required academic progress records to their local county boards between 2020 and 2024. That is grossly unacceptable and places West Virginia on a path to have the least educated children in the US. I will introduce legislation that requires annual testing of home-schooled children to ensure that they are learning at the same level as our public school students. If a test is not conducted by the stricter standards that would be included in the legislation, then the student must 'test-in' to the appropriate grade-level and complete education by attending public or private school.I will support legislation that adopts an initial 'catch-up' COLA, and a permanent COLA for teacher pensions, so that our retired teachers can live a life without fear of poverty from rising medical, housing, utility and food costs.I will support legislation that raises teacher and paraprofessional salary levels to the national median for both categories over a 3-year period.I will support additional funding for public school Career Technical Education (CTE) and adult Advanced Career Education (ACE). Anyone in HD 85 that has tried to find licensed and bonded trade professionals to repair, restore, or build a house know how difficult that is to do and how well-compensated tradesmen and women could become in the building trades.

Few things impact a child more than their education. A brighter tomorrow for West Virginia starts with a brighter today for our children.

Restore and Refocus our Public Schools

An open forum for all candidates is being hosted by the Grant County Chamber of Commerce.

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Integrating solar panels allows farmers to create a high tech, multi-revenue stream, generating electricity alongside livestock. This is critical in West Virginia, where 68 percent of agricultural producers currently rely on off-farm revenue to survive. Solar arrays are particularly beneficial on hillsides and mountainsides that are suitable for livestock grazing, but cannot support row-crop agriculture.In particular, sheep farmers benefit from reduced stress to the herd, as ground temperatures are cooler beneath solar panels during peak sunlight hours. Sheep are well-suited for grazing beneath elevated panels, where they can graze the vegetation around the array structures.Landowners can lease their land to solar developers for from $300 to $4,000 an acre annually, or own systems that provide an annual return on investment of 10 to 15 percent for up to 30 years.If elected, I will work to submit legislation that specifically allows farmers to receive direct, tax-exempt, compensation for the solar energy produced by arrays on their land.In addition, I will work to pass legislation that regulates the utilization of arable land for non-agricultural purposes under the control of the Department of Agriculture.&nbsp; Recently, Commissioner Leonhardt failed to protect almost 200 acres of farmland in Mason County. We need to limit the power he and the Department of Commerce have in taking arable land away from food and textile production without a proper hearing.

Farm property should not lose its agricultural classification if solar panels are installed to produce solar power for commercial use. In addition, Farms should be exempted from taxation regarding the sale of power for commercial use.

Preserve our Farmlands

'PEIA is a participant in the health insurance market place. It should act like one.' Sam Petsonk - West Virginia WatchI have not talked to a single Mountaineer who would prefer to die from a stroke or heart attack for 5 more dollars in their weekly paycheck. I will fight to reclaim the Governor’s $128M annual tax cut and use it to increase funding for rural healthcare, emergency medical services, and expansion of the PEIA health marketplace for all Mountaineers.In addition, I will support increased scholarship funding, reduced barriers, and shorter duration commitments for working off scholarships for RNs and LPNs.In the technology service delivery area, I strongly support and would put forward legislation to establish Mobile Health Units (MHUs) that can complete annual physicals remotely. MHUs will significantly improve the quality of care and reduce the costs of providing healthcare to the rural communities of HD 85.The highest ACA premiums in West Virginia increased by over 133 percent on average, with some plans seeing a tenfold increase for 2026. I will deliver a bill, WV Health Marketplace (PEIA), to make healthcare affordable for all Mountaineers, and fight for its passage in 2027.

Healthcare is everyone's right. Nobody should ever have to go without because it is too far away or too expensive.

Maintain &amp; Improve Access to Rural Healthcare

State Senator Jay Taylor said the quiet part out loud, the part where Morrisey's eyes dance around when asked directly about tax revenue allocation to communities. When the treble in his voice rises when he exclaims, 'There will be literally billions to go around for everyone! More money that what the community will know what to do with!'Jay Taylor said the quiet part out loud at the Grant County Chamber event for federal, state, and local candidates. 'The state is taking 70 percent to eliminate the state income tax!' Boom!30 percent will not compensate for the misery our communities will endure to repair and replace the crumbled roads and broken water systems, nor will it put food on the table when water and electric rates double and triple. Nor will it pay for the health bills as a result of the rise in asthma and cancers. The only winners here are the wealthy. I don't know about you but I wonder, when does a billionaire tire of buying corporate jets and yachts?Legal Ghost Corporations dropping the full weight of their connected private and government operations onto the pastoral soils of rural America to force the construction of private power plants and data centers will become the modern day version of the Battle of Blair Mountain if the peoples houses in state Capitals do not put the brakes on. Currently the GOP in Charleston has given a green light to total destruction of our headwaters and arable land in return for a handful of minimum wage jobs at these facilities. The Speaker of the House is taking a special interest in destroying the HD 85 environment by taking on Fundamental Data as a client in his day job at Bowles Rice. In my years of advocacy for social services both locally and at the state level, I never knew of legislation created without public comment, shoved through session at the 11th hour, and adversarial to the communities affected, to be good for the people that live there. This is what 'illiberal' governments do world-wide: consolidate power under the Chief Executive.My first bill will be to restore public comment and end the use of NDAs for both public and private lands where regulated industries are planned. In addition, I will co-sponsor legislation aimed at restoring taxing authority to our local communities who know best how the data center or any industrial development tax revenue can benefit them. Finally, any new industry that is harmonized to preserve our environment must also provide training and hiring for a set percentage of the construction jobs created. I will continue to oppose all power plant and data center development that will destroy our fragile environments. The Ridgeline power plant and Tucker County Data Center, as currently proposed (larger the the largest data center in the US (NSA Utah)), will devastate our communities for decades and we do not have decades to recover from the climate change and environmental degradation it will generate.

No Data Centers. No private Ridgeline gas- or nuclear- powered plant. Not now.&nbsp;&nbsp;Not ever.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our environment is too fragile to accommodate the largest data center in the US.

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Protect Our Fragile Environment

I have been paying residential property taxes in Tucker County since 2015. I will work in the state assembly to expand the BUILD WV Act by lowering barriers to entry and by improving incentives to provide more affordable housing opportunities within HD85.

Housing costs are going up while wages stay the same. It is an injustice to any hard working West Virginian to not be able to afford a roof over their head.

Improve Incentives For Affordable Housing

I have family in Portland OR and LA and have witnessed what ICE has wrought in these communities. The cruelty is the point as these pardoned J6 marauders and their Proud Boy and 3 Percenter compatriots mask up like the vigilantes of Reconstruction. They are untrained, unqualified, and unworthy of our support. It was never about returning the worst of the worst to their homelands. It has always been about smashing what Trump calls, 'The Enemy Within.'Counties around HD 85 are among a growing number of West Virginia law enforcement organizations officially partnering with ICE through 287(g) agreements enabling designated local officers to perform certain immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight. I will work to end this blanket cooperation. Undocumented and documented felony immigrants out. Leave the rest alone!

Billions in taxpayer dollars have been given to ICE, yet they have no duty to protect or serve the communities they have been placed in. We protect us, always.

Keep ICE Out!

When you can't fully pay your summer or winter electricity bills, remember that PJM is taking $440,000,000 from Mountaineers to build a 20-story transmission tower across West Virginia for the sole benefit of powering Virginia data centers.I will work hard tro shift the burden of infrastructure costs to end the free ride on our dime for corporations such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

Corporations are the ones driving up utility rates and yet citizens are footing the bill. Make those responsible pay their fair share.

End Consumer Utility Subsidies for Industry

What happened at the Mettiki mine in Tucker County in February was shameful. Our Secretary of Commerce did nothing to prevent the largest payroll in the county from moving to A) Virginia B) Pennsylvania, or C) Grafton. The story of where these jobs will land shifts monthly. Currently it appears to be choice C. So why were Mountain View miners not given priority placement at the Grafton mine? When did the Secretary of Commerce find out about the economic disaster that has befallen HD 85?The first economic bill I will introduce or sponsor will be to require the Secretary of Commerce to monitor the actions of major industries and businesses to ensure that we do everything possible to retain good coal and other payrolls in WV when there is a loss of employment to another location.To the broader structural issues, we will not have a state if we cannot stabilize our rural communities. I will begin a dialogue in Charleston that will focus on establishing a universal basic income for both displaced and unplaced blue- and white-collar workers that is based on the national income average.

Taking care of our community means keeping money in the hands of those who need it, not corporations.

Protect Blue Collar Payrolls and Benefits

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Veterans Appreciation Luncheon

The purpose of this event is to thank, appreciate, and listen to veterans, to hear from them about their needs, and how they feel both the state and the federal government should function to best meet their needs, the needs of their families, and their communities.Those who plan to attend, call 304-478-3519 so that enough lunch is prepared!